By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission proposed more unified EU asylum rules on Wednesday, in a bid to stop people waiting for refugee status moving around the bloc and disrupting its passport-free zone.

In an unprecedented wave of migration last year, 1.3 million people reached the EU and most ignored legal restrictions, trekking from the Mediterranean coast to apply for asylum in wealthy Germany, prompting some EU countries to suspend the Schengen system that allows free passage between most EU states.

“The changes will create a genuine common asylum procedure,” said EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. “At the same time, we set clear obligations and duties for asylum seekers to prevent secondary movements and abuse of procedures.”

The proposal would standardize refugee reception facilities across the bloc and unify the level of state support they can get, setting common rules on residence permits, travel papers, access to jobs, schools, social welfare and healthcare.

It would grant prospective refugees swifter rights to work but also put more obligations on them, meaning if they do not effectively cooperate with the authorities or head to an EU state of their choice rather than staying put, their asylum application could be jeopardized.

The five-year waiting period after which refugees are eligible for long-term residence would be restarted if they move from their designated country, the Commission said.

The plan, which will now be reviewed by national governments and the European Parliament, comes after the Commission proposed in May a system for distributing asylum seekers around the bloc, an idea that angered eastern EU states which refuse to take in refugees.

Only 3,056 people have so far been relocated under the scheme that was meant for 160,000 people, the Commission said. Hungary and Slovakia have challenged the quotas for receiving asylum-seekers in the courts.

Asked whether Brussels would punish countries, that also include Poland and the Czech Republic, for not complying with the relocation quotas, Avramopoulos said: “Were not here to punish, we are here to persuade. But if this persuasion doesn’t succeed, then yes, we’re thinking of doing that. But we’re not there yet.”

SAFE LIST

Last year’s record arrivals triggered bitter political disputes in the EU, where the wealthier states that ended up hosting most of the people accused the newer members in the east of showing no solidarity.

A deal with Turkey in March has since cut the arrivals to Greece to a trickle but has prompted concerns about human rights.

Unlike the Turkey route, however, which mainly brought Syrians and other people with a strong cases for asylum into Europe, the bloc is now worried over a rise in arrivals from Africa through Libya. Most people on that route do not qualify for asylum and, under the EU rules, should be sent back.

The Commission wants to draw up lists of “safe countries” outside the bloc, which would help EU states return people, after Athens’ refusal to recognize Turkey as such a place hindered deportations from the Greek islands back to Turkey.

To discourage chaotic flows by facilitating legal migration, the Commission also proposed an EU-wide system for resettlement directly from refugee camps. It said Brussels would pay 10,000 euros for each person EU states bring in.

But Slovakia, the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, was skeptical on chances for unified asylum system.

“We can only talk about real burden-sharing when the quality of life is the same in all EU states,” said Bernard Priecel, head of Slovakia’s migration service. “Otherwise we will always have secondary movements. How can you force them to stay?”

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)